Sex Sells: Victoria's Secret

Share

<p>It would be pretty difficult to sell lingerie without using sex.</p>

Maybe this is all a little too obvious, but
sex sells, among other things, lingerie. And it employs some pretty interesting
marketing tactics to do so.

As a for instance: Who is Victoria’s Secret
targeting with the on-screen Gatsbian seduction? Their wares are most notably
made for the fairer sex (though we won’t rule out some of the more curious
members of the cruder one), yet the ads themselves seem off the demographic
mark. With their Mansionesque sexual allure, Victoria’s Secret seems to be
either cruelly playing into an insecurity or else playing up the unrealistic
expectations of a few stitches of fabric. But perhaps it’s neither.

While it is indeed true that ours, a man’s
physique, is not exactly tailored for teddies, it is nevertheless our
sensibilities (and wallets) that Victoria’s Secret is trying to tap.

A recent survey polling 2000 men and women,
ages 18 to 44, found that 56 percent of men simply know not what they do, that
they would be more inclined to buy seedy sex store lingerie that comes with a
garter belt and rash warning than make a more commonsense purchase, like, say,
one from Victoria’s Secret. Meanwhile, 38 percent of women polled said a set in
the latest styles, colors and prints would probably get their motor running.

And so perhaps Victoria’s Secret is not so
much perpetuating a negative body image as providing a public service for every
woman married to an overimaginative man: “Men, if you’re gonna buy your woman
lingerie, come buy it here:”